Despite some disappointing numbers for Gov. Bobby Jindal ­­-- a 55 approval rating, significantly worse than the 68 percent he scored in the spring of 2009 ­-- the takeaway from the new statewide Southern Media & Opinion Research survey isn't that Jindal's in trouble.

Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press archiveSens. Mary Landrieu And David Vitter were photographed May 24 with Gov. Bobby Jindal during a news conference on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in Galliano. A new poll finds the three about equal in popularity among Louisiana voters.

He's not unpopular, even though his negatives grew during the same period from 30 to 43 percent. He's not at any great risk of getting voted out of office next year, particularly since there's no major Democratic contender in sight.

The overall message from the survey of 600 likely voters, taken Nov. 15-17 on Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby's dime, is more that Jindal is no longer, well, special.

Three years into the boy-wonder governor's first term, he's no more admired, no better liked, than U.S. Sens. David Vitter and Mary Landrieu, both of whom have faced significant public perception obstacles. In fact, the poll's 4 percent margin of error puts Louisiana's three most powerful politicians in a statistical tie for popularity, with Vitter's approval rating one point higher than Jindal's and Landrieu's one point lower.

Unlike Jindal's rating, the results shouldn't at all disappoint Vitter, who survived a prostitution scandal to get re-elected in an overwhelmingly Republican year, and Landrieu, whose fellow Democrats just got through taking a rhetorical pounding during the campaign season, but who seems to have emerged unscathed.

What might disappoint all three is that they finished behind state Treasurer John Kennedy, who racked up a 61 percent positive job rating, with just 19 percent negative. Ironically, Kennedy failed twice to ascend to the Senate himself, once as a Democrat against Vitter and once as a Republican against Landrieu.

Underlying Jindal's middling performance in the poll seems to be a generalized, free-floating voter discontent. Just 19 percent said conditions in the state are getting better, while 39 percent chose each of the other options, "staying about the same" or "getting worse." Strong majorities rated education, roads, public health care, job opportunities and management of state government as "not so good" or "poor."

As for Jindal himself, just 39 percent said they'd definitely vote to re-elect him, and 46 percent disapprove of his frequent, well-chronicled travels out of state to build a national brand.

Also potentially unsettling at the Governor's Mansion is the popularity of Kennedy. The treasurer has emerged of late as a thorn in Jindal's side for offering -- and aggressively publicizing -- a budget-cutting proposal based on numbers that the administration claims are questionable. Yet 58 percent of voters in the poll agree with Kennedy's mantra that state government is overstaffed.

But the poll includes favorable news for the governor, too.

By more than two to one, voters agree with his stance that Louisiana has more of a spending problem than a revenue problem. On a series of questions over whether certain taxes should be raised, the voters almost uniformly said no, by a wide margin.
If Jindal were looking for a way to raise revenue without too much political blowback, the poll suggests a path: Almost two-thirds of those who responded said they'd favor increasing taxes on cigarettes. This finding will surely encourage those who've tried to raise cigarette taxes and put the money into health care in the past. Yet Jindal fought those efforts off, and there's no indication he wouldn't do so again.

The survey also suggests that the recent controversy over Jindal's cutting of higher ed funding may not bother many of his constituents too much. Just 32 percent said they'd favor higher income taxes on middle and upper income residents to offset spending decreases on colleges and universities, a proposal floated by state Senate Education chair Ben Nevers and dismissed out of hand by Jindal. And when offered a head-to-head choice between the two areas that generally face the knife first during tough times, about twice as many said they'd protect health care over higher ed.

Yet the survey should also come with a cautionary note: All of this could change once the Legislature considers a budget next spring, and voters get a sense of just what Louisiana's fiscal crisis will mean to them. Jindal's once enviable numbers, it's worth remembering, followed a period of budget surpluses and income tax cuts in Baton Rouge. It's a lot harder for any politician to win over voters when he's telling them what they can't have, not what they can.
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Stephanie Grace is a staff columnist. She can be reached at sgrace@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3383. Follow her at twitter.com/stephgracetp.